“Look, I’m just saying what we’re all thinking. You can’t deny it makes sense.”

“What makes sense?” you ask, walking into the room.

Yolan and Doran are lounging in one of the common areas shared among Initiates. The room is filled with Initiates of all species, chatting, playing, or studying during their time of leisure. Each clan has traditionally staked a claim on at least one of the tables spread around the room. Your clan is no different. Each day, it’s not uncommon to find a few of your cohort here, just laying about. Since Master Masbau is busy right now, and you have no classes, you’ve decided that you might as well see who’s around.

“You know how every galactic body has positional coordinates? I think there should be four coordinates, not three. It makes sense when you think about it,” Yolan says, turning to you.

“Uh. Explain, please?”

“Everything in the galaxy is given a positional coordinate relative to Coruscant: X, Y, and Z. It doesn’t make the most amount of sense since Coruscant is also moving relative to the center of the galaxy, but it is what it is. Whatever. I think that everything should also be given a fourth coordinate measuring time.”

“Why?”

“To synchronize time! Right now, if you were a transport pilot and had to get your cargo from Coruscant to… Ilum, for example, you wouldn’t know what time it is on Ilum until you’re near. So, if you were told to get a load of Younglings to the Gathering by noon, Ilum time, you might have already missed it. Everybody operates on Coruscanti time, of course, but the local time on a planet is also important.”

“I still don’t follow the fourth-coordinate thing. Aren’t you just describing time zones?”

“There’s that, but also, time isn’t uniform throughout the galaxy. There’s time dilation. Gravitational anomalies can cause issues. The further you go from Coruscant, the greater the difference in actual time there is. A fourth-coordinate would tell you how to compensate.”

“But, is there really a problem right now? I thought people were already compensating in some way.”

“Well…” he hesitates. “It’s… it’s something for the future. It should be done just in case the current system breaks down.”

“I guess it wouldn’t hurt to think about it, but implementing it would be a huge hassle. I don’t think it would be worth it. You’d also have to get the whole Senate to pass it, and I don’t think that’s possible. They don’t agree on anything these days…” you say.

Yolan huffs and furrows his brow in thought, clearly annoyed at the unjust bureaucracy of the Galaxy.

“Sorry, Yolan. We think it’s a good idea—right, Doran?” you say, giving Doran a swift and surreptitious kick

“Ow! I mean, yeah! It just… needs some work.”

“You just need to convince a lot of people to make it reality.”

Yolan sighs, then nods in agreement. “I’ll think about it a bit more. I’m sure there’s something to this idea.”

≡][≡ ⬦⬦⬦ ≡][≡

The Archives are just as busy as the last time you visited. Jedi and librarians wander the endless halls, calming blue light giving everything an unearthly glow. You glance down a couple of the labyrinthian book-laden aisles, seeing nothing but diligent Initiates and curious minds all around. No spaceflight story books on the ground. Good.

Jocasta Nu is not in her usual spot at the service desk. Today, the desk is manned by an aging Jedi Knight—one of the perpetuals who has dedicated their lives toward knowledge rather than advancement. He directs you down the far hallway when you ask for Master Nu. Apparently, she’s doing some reorganizing. She could just as easily ask one of the other librarians to do the work, but once in a while, she likes to do things herself.

Can’t keep a librarian away from her books, clearly.

It’s been a long time since you and Master Masbau brought your condition up with her, and you have yet to hear back from her. She did say that she would bring it up with the Council, didn’t she?

She must have brought it to their attention by now. And therefore, they must not really care enough to spare the time to tell you to quit meddling with the warp. But, that doesn’t sound like something they would do. There’s no way they would be alright with a Youngling having such disturbing dreams, especially if Master Nu thought it was serious enough to bring up.

Urgh. This is truly a conundrum, isn’t it? You stop in your tracks, no longer so willing to go find Master Nu. Do you really want to know what they said? Either they’ve decided it’s not worth the trouble, or they’ve already gotten someone to start looking into you. But, nobody’s come to question you yet, so maybe it wouldn’t be so bad to just let them observe? It’s not like you have anything to hide.

“Ah, hello Xena. Are you lost?”

You whip around, yelping in surprise. You almost trip over your own tail, but fortunately catch yourself just in time.

“Oh dear. I’m sorry about that, Xena. What’s gotten you so spooked? I don’t look that frightening, I hope.”

Blushing furiously, you stammer out a negative. No! She’s not frightening! You were just a bit surprised is all, having been lost in thought.

“Looking for something, Xena? Ah! Have you found out anything more about your visions?”

You shake your head. “No, Master Nu. I… I actually had more visions just before the Gathering. Not the same kind though. Not dangerous or scary.”

You pause for a second, gathering your thoughts. You’ve found her. Or rather, she’s found you. You might as well ask at this point.

“I’m actually here to ask you about what the Council said. Did they have any, um, advice or anything?”

“Oh… I’m sorry, dear. I’ve not yet been able to bring it up during the Council sessions. There’s been…”

She trails off, lost in thought. Her eyes glaze over as she thinks. Her hands clasp and unclasp, and for a moment you can see past her facade of a sprightly old woman, and see the weary visage of a full fledged Master behind it.

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“Master Nu?” you prompt.

“Ah. My apologies once again, young Xena. The Council sessions have been less productive than usual and I have not had the time to bring it up. I will when I get the chance. I promise.”

“Master, is there something wrong?”

“No, no. It’s politics you see. Nothing for you to be concerned about. But, nothing wears down an old body more than the boring speeches of politicians and planners. You’ll understand when you’re older.”

“Master, shouldn’t the Council be, um, un-influenced by politics? We’re the Jedi.”

“Hmm. That is the idea, Youngling. But, we are all people, and thus we all have our own ideas and ideologies. It is a turbulent galaxy out there, and not even us Council members, up in our tall tower, are immune to the influences from beyond these walls.”

“I understand, Master. I’m sorry for bothering you.”

“Oh, no. Do not worry about it! Don’t mind my musings. It’s always good to speak with Younglings like yourself. Always so curious! It makes me feel young again, too. Now, is there anything else you wanted to speak about?”

“No, Master Nu. Thank you!”

“You’re welcome, Xena. I will speak with you again soon.”

≡][≡ ⬦⬦⬦ ≡][≡

The disgusting bulge of Bloodlust continues to resist your attempts to banish it, but you’re sure that you’re making progress. You poke and prod at it, learning from its reaction to your probing. Sometimes it will react one way; other times it will react in another. You’re learning though, learning that it can be defeated.

You can see it trying to grow within you. It reaches out toward your memories, your emotions, your very soul! Always trying to grow, feeding on anything within reach. But, you don’t let it. Every time it tries to expand, you push it back. You mentally stab it in its metaphorical fingers, loosening its grip and forcing it into a semi-dormant state.

On top of the memory of your talk with Master Masbau is yet another layer of protection for you: your success in the Gathering. You talked your own self down. You did not rise to your challenges. You did not let the Bloodlust get the better of you.

You are in control.

And you will stay in control. But, you still have much work to do to rid yourself of the Bloodlust.

There is one trick that you would like to try to speed things up though. Force Stanch. What would happen if you used its purification capability on your Bloodlust? This calls for some experimentation. However, before you get to that, there’s another idea you would like to explore.

Is it possible to split off the purification part of Force Stanch from the blood-clotting aspect? This would allow you to get away from having to stab yourself in order to use the Force Stanch and clear the warp-taint. That would certainly save you a lot of pain, especially if Bloodlust is tougher to remove than you expect.

Actually, why not just test that right now?

…

Ow. But, yes. It works! The tiniest bit of the malefic warp-stuff making up the Bloodlust is gone! It absolutely works!

This is something worth exploring. If you could continuously use this, then you could definitely clear the Bloodlust much faster. Now, how do you start splitting it?

Wait, why don’t you just ask Master Masbau? Maybe there’s another way to do this.

So you do. And, yes, there is. There is something literally called Force Purification! Many of the Jedi within the Halls of Healing are able to perform this art. Unfortunately, Master Masbau doesn’t know how to do it, so you will have to go find a healer to help you test your theory. Hopefully it will work to purge the warp-taint. Otherwise, you’ll just have to stick with the tried and true way of sucking up the pain.

Hmm. Now that you think about it, why are you doing this anyway? Is there a real reason to remove the warp-taint? You’re not really sure what it does.

Sure, the Bloodlust is clearly a result of warp-taint, but all the other parts of you touched by warp-stuff don’t seem to have issues. Is it worth going through all the pain of clearing it? Well, you do feel better, in some weird way, when you use the Force Stanch on yourself.

You do at least need to remove the Bloodlust. If you have the time afterward, then maybe you’ll continue to clear the remaining warp-taint. You’ll have to decide later. And, if you do learn Force Purification, then you might as well use it for something, right?

So, it’s decided. You’ll go bother the healers when you have the time. Hopefully they’ll teach you Force Purification. In the meantime, you’ll have to stick with Force Stanch and bear with the pain.

≡][≡ ⬦⬦⬦ ≡][≡

Besides poking away at your Bloodlust, you continue searching for the cause of your droid phobia. Thanks to your ingenious detective skills, knowing that it must be deep in the recesses of your true-self, it doesn’t take too much longer to find it.

You’d almost missed it. Well, you did miss it, at least during your first and second pass over this area. But, third time’s the charm as they say.

This part of your true-self is weird. Really weird. Something about it unsettles you, which is even weirder because this is just you! Just like with any other part of your true-self this far in, it’s shrouded deeply in warp-stuff. But, it’s strangely darker. Dingier.

Scarier.

Which is possibly why you missed it the first time and second time around. You didn’t want to look in here. You didn’t want to come close.

You didn’t want to wake it.

Wake what, though? What is it that you don’t want to perturb? This is just another part of you, so why does it disturb you so?

You tracked your fear here, though. You decided to take a drastic measure after having no results for so long. You went and found a droid.

And while you quaked in your little boots, you turned your eye inward and tracked the glowing path of memory-bound fear as it wound its way through your true-self. Deeper and deeper into yourself you went, chasing that spark.

And this is where it ended up.

You can see the exact location it went. Once it impacted this slice of your true-self, it branched out, spreading out and glowing in the fog of warp-stuff. But, the place it contacted first, the place where it spread out from, was the most radiant of all.

Now, you observe from a distance, unwilling to get close. Not yet. You mark that part out, the part where you know your phobia to be sourced from. You memorize it, for you do not want to find another droid to track the path once again.

You’ve found it. Now, it’s time to remove it. This will be a delicate operation though. Whatever it is that lies within you…

You really don’t want to see what it is.